College basketball coaching carousel

What if it's vacated? I don't think that's likely, but I wouldn't be shocked either.

 

Good hire? He did all right at Missouri State, got jobbed out of an NCAA bid and seems to be a likeable guy.

I'd bet they'd rather have Bruce Weber back, but considering the troubles Illinois is having up the road, I'm sure there wasn't a huge line of big-name options beating down the door to come to Southern Illinois.

 

The MVC beat writers are undoubtedly in high heaven. He's a quote machine and a good guy.

Reax from Carbondale seems mixed, but that situation is so poisonous, it's hard to get a real feel for it.

He's walking into a situation where SIU was recently elite, fell off the utter face of the Earth, was stuck with the previous head coach a year or two longer than they wanted to be because they overpaid for him (cautionary tale for every school who feels their rep is predicated on how they pay), the budgetary situation for the school in general is bad, etc.

So you have a fan base that expects Sweet 16s, but is living in the past a bit, and doesn't have the money to pay for it. That's not a good combination.

On the other hand, Hinson can likely recruit in St. Louis, an area SIU ought to hit hard at all times. SIU's fanbase is passionate (when motivated) and there is tradition there. There's some young players that are promising. And SIU Arena, once an epic craphouse, was renovated two years ago, so there's that too.

 

Tanned, rested and ready for Illinois to call:

 

And he's got the orange sport coats to do it!

 

That would be freaking hilarious, if only to see thousands of Illinois fans have their heads explode at precisely the same moment.

 

Which is why I'm in favor of it.

 

The day after Bruce Pearl's show cause expires, some sad-sack C-USA outfit (as currently constituted) will make a run at him. My $2 wager is ECU.

 

And Pearl will have ECU in the Sweet 16 within two years and he will wear a purple and gold suit on PTI and yuck it up with Tony and Wilbon. I could see it.

 

Have you heard the story about Bruce Pearl, Jimmy Collins and Deon Thomas? There's no way that happens. From Pearl's Wikipedia page:

 

Colossally botched searches in football brought Gruden to Tampa and Saban to Alabama.

I liked the Gottfried hire at the time, but he did a great job this year at NC State.

 

Cam Newton and preposterous, Rube Goldberg-esque luck won the Barn its national title. Chizik's been nothing but lousy outside of that. 4-8 this coming season, canned after that.